My players remarked that July will mark one year that we began the game - Canada day, no less!

Between the ongoing threads, the ghosts of the past who have yet to reveal themselves, the consequences of what the players have already done, and the plethora of lovely modules FFG has created, I have content out the wazoo!

I previously had told my players that I have content to extend into Q3 of 2016, but based on the "holy crap it has been a year already?!" experience and a closer examination of our rate of play - I have content that will stretch until Q2 2017! This is not even counting anything they do during each session!

Does anyone else have a bag of tricks they are just itching to reveal? How do you cope with the urge to spill your beans and blab about secrets only you are aware of? What did the bad boy do Teddy?!

I had a game where I was asked to step in and GM for people who had already built characters, with very little connectivity. Despite this, I was able to tie all of their Obligations and some of their Motivations into one cohesive origin story and had a dramatic villain monologue prepared where the Big Bad who screwed all of them would lay out how he did it, and then presumably die.

Sadly, the campaign died before we could reach that moment, so I'm forever left with What Could Have Been.

I recently declassified the origin story to the players after the conclusion of another campaign, and frankly they were not as impressed as they should have been

I ran a D6 Star Wars Campaign for 7 years, and within 6 months of the finish line, my group parted thanks to children and people moving away. I then ran a 3 year RCR Campaign that was 3 sessions from the end and two of the players split up, and two of the players moved away.

So apart from my games causing relationships to break up, and people to leave the city, I am confident my new campaign will go fine

This is one reason I don't get too detailed in my plots up front anymore. I create a few major NPCs with motivations, give the whole thing a trajectory, like, this is what will happen if nobody interferes...and then the players enter. The NPCs react off screen as necessary and the plot adapts. When planning the next session I try to think of one or two cool/fun/dramatic scenes, so my anticipation and excitement is limited to the next session. Saves on heartache

I do like the general idea of a campaign being sort of a sandbox if you will. Setup some major NPCs as Whafrog has said, with detailed goals and motivations. Then have those key NPCs react to the PCs messing up with those plans or, potentially, even other NPCs getting in eachother's way. Then just kind of let the world do as it will.

Personally, I've often played with the idea (though I've never actually done it) of having various plots going on driven by different NPC factions/groups/organizations.. sometimes colliding with eachother. At each session then present the players with the 'current news' as affected by shifts in those plots. Of course some of that news relating to whatever they most recently did as well.

This is one reason I don't get too detailed in my plots up front anymore. I create a few major NPCs with motivations, give the whole thing a trajectory, like, this is what will happen if nobody interferes...and then the players enter. The NPCs react off screen as necessary and the plot adapts. When planning the next session I try to think of one or two cool/fun/dramatic scenes, so my anticipation and excitement is limited to the next session. Saves on heartache

This is pretty much my approach as well. I create a sector with some 10-15 planets, populate it with various NPCs, organizations and factions, and then determine where everything will go provided no one throws a thermal detonator in the mix. Then I give my players a box of thermal detonators and sit back, watch and adapt.

This is one reason I don't get too detailed in my plots up front anymore. I create a few major NPCs with motivations, give the whole thing a trajectory, like, this is what will happen if nobody interferes...and then the players enter. The NPCs react off screen as necessary and the plot adapts. When planning the next session I try to think of one or two cool/fun/dramatic scenes, so my anticipation and excitement is limited to the next session. Saves on heartache

Exactly. I also tend to create individual adventures tailored to the motivations, obligations, and general desires of the players to help keep the game going. I find many players just flounder if they are given only a sandbox. They need adventure hooks.